Methodology

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive
and believe it can achieve” – Napoleon Hill

Success favors the Prepared.

Despite popular beliefs, the core part of website development and design is not necessary the coding process. It’s the crucial part of the website development life cycle itself which are the steps of gathering information, detailed planning, and testing of the website before it goes live.

At common protocol our general website process will look like this. It may vary depending on the project but overall putting it together is getting you together and this is how we do it. So, here are 5 main steps:

Website Development: Dream IT, See IT, Do IT

When we think of building a website, our thoughts rotate around two main issues – price and time. These two values depend largely on the size and scope of the project. To outline the whole development process, we can create a website development timeline, adding tasks and establishing milestones for your project. It is the best way to track your project implementation to make sure we keep up with the target go live deadline.

Process

Step 1. Checklist/Planning: Main Goals, Sitemap, Wireframe Creation

Let’s first began discovering and researching your business which will determine how the subsequent steps will look like. The most important task at this point is to get a clear understanding of your future website purposes, the main goals you wish to get, and the target audience you want to attract to your site. Start here to fill out our questionnaire to get started. We usually estimate about 2 weeks depending on the project.

Sitemaps and Wireframes

Let’s first began discovering and researching your business which will determine how the subsequent steps will look like. The most important task at this point is to get a clear understanding of your future website purposes, the main goals you wish to get, and the target audience you want to attract to your site. Start here to fill out our questionnaire to get started. We usually estimate about 2 weeks depending on the project.

Most of our Sitemaps and Wireframe creations are developed with Large projects more than 50 pages unless it’s requested by the client. At this stage of website development cycle, we will create the data that we can give to a customer for them to decide how the entire site will look. On the basis of the information that was gathered together in the previous phase, the sitemap is created. The sitemap will describe the relations between the main areas of your website and will allow you to understand how the inner structure of your website looks like, but it won’t describe the user interface or design. Here is a partial sitemap of the NFL Network Affiliates website:

Site Map Example

Step 2. Content Writing and Assembly

Content writing and compiling usually overlaps with other stages of website creation and its role can’t be underestimated. It is necessary to put in writing the very essence you’d like to communicate to the audience of your website, and add calls-to-action. Content writing involves also creation of catchy headlines, text editing, writing new text, compiling the existing text, etc., which takes time and effort? As a rule, the client undertakes to provide website content ready to migrate to the site. It is better when all website content is provided before or during website coding.

Step 3. Prototype: Mock-Ups, Review, and Approval Cycle

During the Mock-up phase, your website takes shape. All the visual content, such as images, photos, and videos is created at this step. Once again, all the info that was gathered through the first phase is crucial. We consider the customer and target audience requirements while we work on the design. With most sites we will create a home page visual mock-up of your idea. This will give you the opportunity to share your thoughts about the look and feel of the website. If you require full design layouts of each page, just let us know and we can provide them as well for an additional cost.

NFL Network Affiliates Site Mock-Up

Step 4. Coding

At this step, we can finally start creating the website itself. All of the graphic elements that have been designed during the previous stages will be used to create the actual website. Normally, the home page is created first, and then all sub-pages are added, according to the website hierarchy that was previously created in our planning stage.

Step 5. Testing, Review and Launch

Testing is probably the most routine part of our process. We make sure every single link is tested to make sure that the navigation throughout the site is user-friendly and none are broken. We will check every form, every script, run a spell-checking software to find possible typos. We use code validations to check if our code follows the current web standards. We check cross-browser compatibility and mobile device responsiveness which is very important for you.

After we check and re-check your website, it’s time to upload it to your server and allow for your final review. Once deployed, we give it yet another run as a final test to be sure that all your files have been installed correctly. Then we are ready to go live.

Maintenance:

What’s important to remember is that a website is more a service than a product. It’s not enough for us to “deliver” a website to a client. We want to also make sure that everything works fine, and everybody is satisfied. We are always prepared to make changes if updates are needed. We encourage feedback which will allow us to detect possible problems your clients may face after the site is live. Our highest priority task in this case is to fix the problem as fast as we can so there is no inconvenience for you or your clients.

The other important thing is keeping your website up to date. We normally use a CMS (Content Management System) for regular updates which will prevent you from functionality issues and decrease security risks.

Website Deposits and Pay Schedules:

Our payment process requires a 50% deposit for small business websites 25 pages or less and 1/3 of the total balance for corporate websites over 25 pages but under 50 pages. Websites over 50 pages will vary based on the terms discussed in the planning of the sites development. This would include but not limited to the development time line, the approved rate for development, and launch date. At this point, we will discuss a pay schedule with you based on the various stages of development.

Turn Around:

In the planning phase we will discuss the estimated turn around time for completion of the website. This is usually based on how soon we can get the content. If contents are provided early, initial and on going instructions are clear, revisions requested are reasonable, turn around time can be less than what we may estimate.

On the other hand it could drastically increase due to response in-actions, delayed mock-up approvals, back and forth change requests etc.

The turnaround times are based on actual statistics of jobs we have done in the past and are NOT guaranteed. However, we do our best to communicate at all times until we get it completed. Then once we have everything in place, any new ideas and updated directions can be discussed, approved and reflected on the entire project.